Everyone in the AFC is trying to catch up with the New England Patriots.

Over the past 14 years, New England has reached the conference championship game nine times and appeared in the Super Bowl six times with a record of 4-2.

When Peyton Manning first arrived in the Mile High City, some pundits expected them to dethrone New England. Denver did defeat the Patriots on their way to Super Bowl XLVIII, which resulted in a 43-8 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Denver hasn’t won a Super Bowl since 1998, when John Elway led one of the NFL’s most prolific offenses of all-time. During these last 17 years, Denver has watched the Patriots win four Super Bowls.

While Denver hasn’t reached the ultimate goal with Manning, its not as if they haven’t been knocking on the door. Denver has won the AFC West for the past four seasons.

In the other two seasons under Manning, the Broncos found themselves losing in the divisional round at home to Baltimore and Indianapolis respectively.

Although Manning has shown signs of slowing down, at the end of the day, if he’s your quarterback, you can expect to field a competitive team year in and year out. With that being said, Elway isn’t content with just being competitive, which is part of the reason why he decided to part ways with former head coach John Fox. 

“The main thing between John and I was we disagreed how to get to the next level,” Elway said. “The biggest miss between us was how do we take that next step.”

However, Elway stressed there’s no hard feelings between the two.

“It was the right time so we mutually agreed to part ways,” Elway said. “I like John Fox as a man very much. He is a very, very good man. He’s got a tremendous heart.”

Fox went on to become the new head coach of the Chicago Bears, while Elway decided to bring in a familiar face as Fox’s replacement.

None other than Gary Kubiak.

Kubiak has a strong connection with the Broncos organization. He was in Denver for nine years as a player and an additional 11 years as an offensive coordinator.

Elways feels Kubiak is the right man to bring the Lombardi trophy back home.

“I know what Gary Kubiak is about. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him for 30 years, had a chance to play with him and play for him. I know his philosophies and I know what he can do. I know his goals are the same as mine and that’s to win and to win World Championships.”

The Hall of Fame quarterback went on to elaborate.

“I think talking about getting to the next level, and I think Gary said it, we’ve got to get through the first business, get ourselves in position to have that chance. Now, is it going to work out every time? No, it’s not going to work out every time. We’d like to say it is, but there are a lot of things that have to happen for you once you get into January to be able to win a World Championship. Things have got to fall for you right too. You’ve got to be playing your best football. But also, there’s a piece of that puzzle that is, part of it is you’ve got to get a little bit lucky. The ball’s got to bounce your way to be World Champions.”

Sometimes when trying to get over the hump, it when your main competition goes backwards. On paper, New England isn’t as good as they were just two months ago.

Darrelle Revis, Brandon Browner and Vince Wilfork are all gone from New England. Those three players were more than just impact players on the field, they were leaders in the locker room, which will be very difficult to replace.

Couple New England’s losses with Denver’s gain from a coaching perspective and you may have a changing of the guard…again.

The 23-man coaching staff have a combined 314 seasons of NFL experience. Headlined by Kubiak of course, but his assistants are guys like Wade Phillips, Joe DeCamillis, Rick Dennison and Bill Kollar.

Phillips will serve as the defensive coordinator in Denver, a place he’s familiar with. He was the head coach during the ’93-94 seasons, but that’s not the only place he’s spent time as the head man. Phillips also spent time as the head coach for the New Orleans Saints, Buffalo Bills, Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans.

It’s well noted that Denver hasn’t been major players in free agency thus far, but the talent is already there. With this new regime on the sidelines, the Broncos may be ready to take that next step.